Crypto Whale Loses $24M in Ethereum to Web 3.0 Phishing Attack

A Whale Victim of a Phishing Attack

A cryptocurrency whale has been the target of a massive phishing attack, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars worth of Ether (ETH) staked on the liquid staking provider Rocket Pool.

On Sept. 6, the security firm PeckShield reported that the investor had lost their entire address balance of Lido Staked ETH (stETH) and Rocket Pool ETH (rETH). The attack only took two transactions, with 9,579 stETH stolen in one and 4,851 rETH in another, totaling a staggering $24 million.

PeckShield reported that the phisher then swapped the assets for 13,785 ETH and 1.64 million Dai (DAI).

As web 3.0 is becoming a reality, this incident serves as a reminder of the importance of understanding the risks associated with cryptocurrency and the need for increased security measures to protect against phishing attacks.

History of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

PeckShield reported that a large portion of DAI tokens have already been moved to the automated crypto exchange FixedFloat. MistTrack, the SlowMist crypto tracking team, said that the remaining stolen funds were transferred to three addresses. Scam Sniffer reported that the victim had enabled token approval to the scammer by signing “Increase Allowance” transactions.

Allowance or access permissions are a feature of ERC-20 tokens that allows a third party to spend tokens that belong to someone else using smart contracts. Some crypto experts have cautioned against the risks associated with approving ERC-20 allowances, noting that anonymous developers can deploy malicious smart contracts to scam users.

As the web evolves, it is important to understand the history of web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Web 3.0 is the next step in the evolution of the web. It is a decentralized web that is built on blockchain technology and has been referred to as the “trustless” web. Web 3.0 tokens can be purchased, and it is possible to access the web 3.0. However, it is important to note that web 3.0 has not yet been fully developed.

Recently, several Ethereum liquid staking providers — Rocket Pool, StakeWise, Stader Labs and Diva Staking — have implemented or are working on a self-imposed rule in which they guarantee not to own more than 22% of the Ethereum staking market.

This is an important moment in the history of web 3.0 and cryptocurrency, and you can express your support for independent journalism in the crypto space by collecting this article as an NFT.